


so full of love I could barely eat

by SafelyCapricious



Series: things you find in a graveyard [30]
Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Banter, Crushes, F/M, Friendship, Mutual Pining, Mutually Unrequited, Pre-Relationship, Unreliable Narrator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-15 05:17:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21248084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SafelyCapricious/pseuds/SafelyCapricious
Summary: "Wow," says Skye, head tilted as Jemma turns towards her, curious. "I have to say, I always hate to see him go, but I love to watch him leave.""Skye!" Jemma exclaims, hand over her mouth to stop herself from laughing because that isn't remotely appropriate but -- well, she's not wrong."What?" Skye says, eyes still tracking the retreating hero, "Man is fine. I know he's yours but you cannot blame me for looking.""He's not mine," Jemma says, reflexively, and fights the blush down that the thought always brings to her skin.





	so full of love I could barely eat

**Author's Note:**

> Title generated by the [Hozier random fanfic title generator](http://www.generatorland.com/usergenerator.aspx?id=22501). I am starting to worry I'm repeating titles but...¯\\_(ツ)_/¯
> 
> ONE MORE DAY! ONE DAY MORE! FICTOBER HAS NOT WON <strike>YET</strike>! 
> 
> This is honestly more pre-relationship, but I don't think anyone who doesn't ship them would enjoy reading it, so I hope those that find this enjoy!

"Wow," says Skye, head tilted as Jemma turns towards her, curious. "I have to say, I always hate to see him go, but I love to watch him leave."

"Skye!" Jemma exclaims, hand over her mouth to stop herself from laughing because that isn't remotely appropriate but -- well, she's not wrong. 

"What?" Skye says, eyes still tracking the retreating hero, "Man is fine. I know he's yours but you cannot blame me for looking."

"He's not mine," Jemma says, reflexively, and fights the blush down that the thought always brings to her skin. 

"Uh-huh," says Skye, and since he's finally rounded a corner and is out of eyesight she turns her gaze towards Jemma, "he is definitely yours."

"We're just friends." Jemma crosses her arm and looks off to the side.

Skye scoffs and Jemma refuses to look at her. "Right, just friends. I wish I had a 'friend' like that." 

"Stop it. You're being --" Jemma cuts herself off and shakes her head and turns to walk back towards the lab. "It's not like that." 

"Have you not seen the way he looks at you?" Skye is, as always, tenacious as she follows Jemma. They met during Skye's first year as a Com student when Jemma was doing a rotation of lectures between all the campuses regarding the importance of inter departmental cooperation and, well, she's Jemma's first real female friend and she cannot regret that and it's due in large part to Skye's inability to let things go but she can still curse the other woman for her dogged tenacity. 

"He looks at me like a person looking at another person." Jemma likes to think she's standing firm, at least verbally, even as she desperately tries to retreat to the lab in the hopes that Skye will leave her. 

"No, he looks at you like you hung the stars up in the night sky and are literally the only good thing in the world like – oh man, what's that quote – oh! He looks at you like you're water and he is in the desert dying of thirst." Skye snickers to herself and catches the door that Jemma tries to shut in her face. "What I'm saying, babe, is that he is thirsty." 

Jemma gives up any attempts at being above it and buries her face in her hands as she tries, valiantly, to not spontaneously combust. "Shut up." 

"Like, hella thirsty. And also hella fine. So, why haven't you – Oh, hey Fitz." Skye's voice raises at the last and Jemma wants to viciously point out that someone has a crush but – Skye hadn't brought up any of it when Barnes was still around so she doesn't deserve that level of pettiness. 

Jemma stays turned away, head in hands, for a little longer as Skye tries to flirt with a completely oblivious Fitz before Fitz, bless his heart, asks, "Are you okay, Simmons? Do you need some water or..."

"Fine," Jemma is aware that her voice is still a pitch higher than convincing, but it will have to do as she abruptly drops her hands and smiles at the both of them, fake and bright. "I'm fine. I'm just going to go...finish that thing."

And this time she manages to escape Skye before the girl can bring up anything else because she's distracted with Fitz and -- it's a dirty tactic but it works and neither of them will go into the BSL-3 unless they have a very good reason to so it's the safest place for her right now. 

She loves Skye, she does, but she knows what her chances are with someone like Barnes, one of the most skilled men she knows and a war hero and everything a man should be, and she's never been one to harbor false hope. It's sweet, really, that Skye thinks so highly of her that she'd think she stood even the most remote chance but -- It doesn't matter. She doesn't. They're friends and it's wonderful to be his friend and she's comfortable with just being his friend. 

She is.

So long as she doesn't let herself think about the possibility of more, she's fine. 

Besides, it's not like Skye has room to talk about not acting on feelings -- she still hasn't asked Fitz out and, as brilliant as he is, he isn't going to see anything but a very blatant date invitation as interest because he's always been a bit dim when it comes to people, bless his heart, but if Skye can't even take a chance on a much less high profile target, she cannot even remotely think Jemma would. 

Besides, Jemma has seen the sort of company Barnes keeps when he's not with her and — Jemma knows she's an attractive woman, and undoubtedly brilliant, but she's not on the level of the Black Widow or Agent 13 or, even — though she seems a little young for him — the Scarlet Witch. 

It doesn't matter anyways. 

She busies herself with cleaning up and preparing for the next day -- she doesn't actually have a reason to be in the BSL-3 other than fleeing from Skye -- and tries not to think about any of it. Because thinking about it will just make her uncomfortable and sad and -- it's not worth it.

Oh, he most certainly would be but --

Nope. No, no, no. She is not going to entertain those thoughts. Instead she should focus on how she can streamline the process of making this new compound so that it can be trusted to a lab tech.

***

“So,” Natasha says as they’re all suiting up for their mission, “Dr. Simmons looked good today.”

“Yeah,” Bucky agrees as he checks his gun over, before fully realizing what she’d said. “Wait, what?” 

But Natasha is already cackling and Steve is groaning and handing her money and – “Are you fuckers serious?” 

“You haven’t even seen her today, Buck,” Steve protests. 

Natasha flips through the bills and grins. “But he’s sure she looked good, told you he is G. O. N. E. Gone!”  


“I hate you,” Bucky considers the shit eating look on Steve’s face and adds, “both. A lot.” 

Natasha reaches out to ruffle his hair but he jerks back and scowls at her until she’s laughing and gone back to strapping knives to her extremities. 

“I can’t believe you bet on me,” he mutters to himself, later, as he provides backup for Steve. 

“I can’t believe you haven’t just asked her out,” Steve returns as he punches another AIM agent in the face and catches his shield with his other hand. 

Bucky checks his gun instead of responding and grabs a knife so he can be ready as Steve kicks down another door. 

“Seriously,” Steve says later, “just ask her out, Buck, any girl would be lucky to have you.” 

He makes a face, because Steve is being earnest and he’s not likely to let this go. At least Nat isn’t here to mock him for it. He finishes cleaning his knife and raises from his crouch. “She’s…brilliant. And beautiful and — she’s not gonna go for someone like me.” He smiles as he says it, but Steve can always see through him and he’s dragged into a quick hug. 

“She is smart, so she’ll definitely know what a swell guy you are.” Steve has that face on, and Bucky realizes he’s going to keep hearing about this until he surrenders by asking her out or someone gets knocked unconscious, and he’s just trying to find a way to make that happen when Natasha returns and Steve’s mouth clicks shut. 

“All clean, we good to go?” She glances at them, and then when she catches the small bloodstain on his sleeve she grins like a shark. “Looks like you got hit there, Barnes, you gonna drop by the good doctor? Get her to tend to you, maybe give you a treat for being good?” 

“I hate you both, so much,” he says, from behind the shield of his hands over his face as his two best friends laugh at his pain. 

**Author's Note:**

> Please come talk to me [on tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/capriciouswrites)! People talking to me makes me feel less like I'm yelling into the void.
> 
> No betas, we die like men. Let me know if anything looks wonky.
> 
> It's fairly likely I'll try to do more in this universe, but it looks like fictober has made a lot of those for me, so I need to figure out priorities and things. Ugh. Maybe a survey? Would anyone actually answer a survey? Whatever, maybe I'll do it for funsies. 
> 
> Thanks for reading and please let me know what you thought!


End file.
